Presently, consumers and businesses exchange vast amounts of information in order to engage in a business transaction or sale. In traditional business transactions, consumers use accepted means of payment to purchase items at a store or another place of business. In exchange, businesses offer goods or services in consideration of the payment by the consumers. In many instances, businesses use security methods to verify the method of payment, for example verifying through a driver's license that a consumer is the same as the individual identified on a credit card.
As electronic communication becomes more popular as a means for transacting business, through for example the Internet, consumers and businesses desire a more secured form of electronic communication. For example, it is desired that a credit card number electronically sent to a business is not intercepted or used improperly. For e-business transactions to become more widely accepted, consumers must use the electronic services provided by businesses, and businesses must be able to ensure the security of such electronic transactions. Otherwise, the advantages of an electronic commerce environment will not be realized, due to a lack of participation or demand by consumers and businesses. Therefore, businesses and consumers who communicate electronically need to know that their respective messages are private and need to verify the identity of a sender.
To ensure that transactions take place smoothly between parties, it is essential that the parties not only trust the communication path but also have assurances regarding the integrity of the information transmitted and the identity of the party transmitting the information. Without this assurance, the possibility of fraud, either unintentional or purposeful, could undermine the ability of parties to effectively engage in electronic commerce.
In modern electronic commerce environments, digital certificates are used to prevent interception of transactions and to allow authentication and verification of the transactions. For example, a digital certificate makes it possible to verify someone's claim that they have the right to use a given key in a key-based security scheme, which helps prevent unauthorized users from impersonating a rightful user. Digital certificates, used in conjunction with encryption, provide a more complete security solution by assuring the identity of all parties involved in an electronic transaction.
It is therefore desirable to provide systems and methods to allow for the secure and reliable exchange of information between parties utilizing electronic communication.